An Evening with the Cailleach: Keeper of Winter, Ancient Wisdom & the Turning Year

As the year deepens into shadow and the first true signs of winter begin to settle across the landscape, we turn toward The Cailleach (CAL-yak or KAL-yukh), the ancient winter woman whose stories have lived for centuries in the folklore of Ireland and Scotland.

She belongs to mountains and wild places, to stone and storm, to bare trees and cold water. In old stories, she shapes the land, tends animals, carries her staff across the winter landscape, and holds her place within the mysterious turning between one season and another.

There is something especially fitting about meeting her at the beginning of December.

The trees have released their leaves. Gardens have gone quiet. The light continues to diminish as we make our way toward the Winter Solstice. Beneath the apparent stillness, however, roots remain alive, seeds wait underground, evergreens hold their color, and the natural world continues in ways we cannot always see.

The Cailleach invites us into this quieter landscape.

Not to hurry through the darkness in search of the returning light, but to wander for a while among the old stories, winter plants, and forgotten wisdom that belong to this part of the year.

During our gathering, we will explore:

The Old Stories of The Cailleach

Together we will journey into some of the folklore surrounding The Cailleach and the many ways she appears across Ireland and Scotland—as an ancient woman of the land, a keeper of winter, a shaper of mountains and stones, and a figure deeply entwined with weather, animals, and the changing seasons.

Her stories have shifted from place to place and generation to generation, and we will allow some of that mystery to remain, exploring not only what the old tales tell us, but what they leave for us to wonder about.

Working with Her Plant Allies

The Cailleach is associated with plants and trees that mirror her power, endurance, and transformative nature—resilient species that survive the cold or carry deep roots in Celtic tradition.

• Holly and Gorse (Whin): She is said to throw her staff beneath holly or gorse at winter's end, marking the mysterious passage from one season into another.

• Yew: An ancient tree of death, rebirth, memory, and longevity, carrying us into the deeper mysteries of winter and ancestral time.

• Blackthorn: Thorned and formidable, yet among the first to flower, holding both the severity of winter and the quiet promise of what follows.

• Hazel: A tree of wisdom and inspiration, offering the possibility of insight through the long nights.

• Heather: A plant of the wild moor and open land, woven through traditions of protection, luck, and the unseen world.

• Hawthorn & Rowan: Trees long associated with protection, seasonal change, folklore, and the places where the ordinary world brushes against something more mysterious.

• Nettle & Pine: Hardy, enduring plants that remind us how much life continues even when the landscape appears to be sleeping.

• Mugwort, Yarrow & Thyme: Herbs we will explore through folklore and seasonal practice, each carrying its own long history of protection, dreaming, healing, or remembrance.

We will spend time with their stories and traditions, discovering how these plants have accompanied people through winter and considering which one we may wish to carry with us symbolically through the season.

The Winter Landscape

The Cailleach's world is not empty. It is frost along a stone wall. Wind moving through bare branches. Dark water beneath a winter sky. The unexpected green of holly beneath the trees. A landscape that appears to have fallen silent while countless unseen things continue beneath its surface. We will spend time noticing this hidden winter world and exploring what becomes visible when we allow ourselves to move at its slower pace.

A Winter Ritual of Keeping

As we approach the longest nights of the year, our ritual will not ask us simply what we are ready to release. Instead, we will turn toward what remains. Something we love. Something that sustained us. Something quietly growing within us. A hope, a memory, a promise, a small piece of ourselves we would like to carry safely through the winter.

Through a simple ritual inspired by The Cailleach and her winter landscape, we will choose something to tend through the dark season until the Wheel begins to turn once again.

There will be space to listen, imagine, remember, and notice what arises without needing to arrive at an answer.

An Evening with The Cailleach

There are seasons for becoming and seasons for simply being.

December brings us into the latter.

The natural world becomes quieter. The nights stretch longer. The familiar paths through the woods look different beneath bare branches, and things hidden by summer's abundance become visible again.

Perhaps this is part of the old wisdom held within The Cailleach's stories. She does not belong to a winter that needs to be made cheerful or hurried toward spring. She belongs to winter as it is—wild, beautiful, difficult, mysterious, and necessary.

On December 1, we will gather at the beginning of her season with stories, plants, reflection, and gentle ritual, allowing ourselves an evening to wander a little more slowly through the old winter world.

Investment: $45.00

Your registration includes the live gathering, a seasonal PDF guide filled with lore, reflections, journaling prompts, and practices, along with access to the recorded session.

If you're unable to join us live, you are still welcome to register and receive the recording and accompanying materials so you can journey with The Cailleach in your own time.